Diagrammatic Pieces define the pieces moves on the item itself. This removes the need to memorize the moveset to the symbol needed in many forms of chess
Western Chess - Maple Landmark
Wooden Pieces with the moves written on the bottom (so you have to lift them up to see)
Maple Landmark Image
Japanese Chess - Dobutsu Shogi (in the greenwood)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dōbutsu_shōgi
Cute animals with the moves indicated by dots around the edge of the piece, probably the best diagrammatic set I’ve seen
Dobutsu shogi image
Japanese Chess - Kumon Study Shogi set
Very similiar to dobutsu shogi, but with the original character written in the middle instead of a cute animal. The wood feels good in the hand
Study Shogi image
Eastern chess sets will often have “westernized” pieces, that are different non-language characters symbols, but still require people to memorize a symbol lookup table.
I’d love to find diagrammatic options for Chinese Chess (XongQi), but I haven’t seen any - do you know of options?
OMG childhood memories unlocked.
I remember playing this thing called 斗兽棋 that I just googled and literally can’t find it for sale in the west.
I remember playing that with my older brother
now the brotherhood relationship no longer exists :/ (sibling abuse)
Its bascially an animal game, like elephant takes tiger then it goes down the list and dog can take a cat, cat can take a mouse, mouse can take an elephant (cuz it goes into the elephants ears and kills it? idk), like a hierarchy thing, with the last place killing the top animal, hard to explain, just read the rules.
There are like art carved into the pieces that resemble the animal of what Chinese characters says.
I think the are versions you could probably find on a Chinese website that has a more cuter depiction of the animals.
This is like a unique thing to China I think, I don’t think anyone in the west even knows about it.
I remember having fun with it with my brother… sad that relationships never last long, no matter how close the blood is :/
That looks really cool! I can’t find it anywhere either
The rule set is interesting, if I ever see it i’ll pick it up for sure!